Red Hat ENTERPRISE LINUX 3 - STEP BY STEP GUIDE Manual page 85

Chapter 6. Email Applications 71
6.3. Plain Text Email Clients
Most modern email clients allow the user to select whether they want to send their emails in plain
text or in HTML. The advantage of HTML formatted email is that they can contain graphics and
interactive links to Web sites. The particular font can be specified, the layout is very controllable,
textures, and pictures or backgrounds can be added; all this makes for a visually appealing message
when it gets to the recipient.
On the other hand, plain text email is just that — plain text. They is nothing fancy, there are no pictures
embedded in the email, and there are no special fonts. Plain text emails are simple.
The term plain text refers to textual data in ASCII format. Plain text (also called clear text) is the
most portable format because it is supported by nearly every email application on various types of
machines.
This chapter discusses the mutt plain text email client.
6.3.1. Using Mutt
Mutt is a small but very powerful text-based mail client for UNIX operating systems.
Mutt's configuration file, , gives mutt its flexibility and configurability. It is also this file
~/.muttrc
that might give new users problems. The number of options that mutt has available to it are truly
astounding. mutt allows the user to control nearly all of the functions that mutt uses to send, receive,
and read your mail. As is true with all powerful software, it takes time to understand the features and
what they can do for you.
Most of the options are invoked using the or commands, with either boolean or string
set unset
values, e.g. .
set folder = ~/Mail
All configuration options can be changed at any time by typing a [:] followed by the relevant com-
mand. For example turns off the handy keyboard command hints at the top of the
:unset help
screen. To turn those hints back on, type .
:set help
If you cannot remember the command you want to use, there is always tab-completion to help you.
You do not have to type all your preferred configuration commands each time you run mutt, you can
save them in a file which is loaded every time the program starts up. This configuration file must exist
in your home directory, it has to be named either or .
~/.muttrc ~/.mutt/muttrc
When you launch mutt (by typing
at a shell prompt), a screen appears with a list of email
mutt
messages. This initial menu is called the index.
Figure 6-8. Main Screen
mutt